


Damage Control

by TaliaThompson



Category: SEAL Team (TV)
Genre: Angst, Clay Spenser - Freeform, Clay whump, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Episode Related, Eric Blackburn - Freeform, Friendship, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Jason Hayes - Freeform, Near Death Experiences, Ray Perry - Freeform, Sonny Quinn - Freeform, Whump, sonny whump
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-12
Updated: 2019-02-14
Packaged: 2019-10-27 02:04:42
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 6,486
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17757713
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TaliaThompson/pseuds/TaliaThompson
Summary: Things around Clay are falling apart and Sonny is there to pick him up. When Sonny becomes trapped in the torpedo tube of a submarine, Clay can't just stand by, waiting for him to die. A prompt that was sent to me by one of my awesome readers of a possible alternate ending for "Time to Shine."





	1. Chapter 1

Clay had just fallen asleep not too long ago, or so he thought, when a loud pounding on his door woke him up. He rolled his eyes as he sat himself up and looked over at the clock, surprised when it read 9:23 am. He thought for sure he had just fallen asleep so was extra surprised to see he had actually slept about 9 hours. 

Somewhat relieved he had finally gotten a ‘good night sleep,’ something that hasn’t happened much since Stella left, he stood up, threw on a shirt and walked to the door.

He looked through his little peephole and wasn’t surprised to see Sonny on the other side of the door. The man had been there every step of the way, doing whatever he could to help get Clay through his break up. 

Clay was grateful for Sonny. The friendship the two men shared was undeniable, even the rest of the team noticed it. It was a friendship Clay thought he would never find again after Brian died, but here it was.

“Good morning sunshine!” Sonny smiled as Clay opened the front door.

“Hey. Everything ok?” Clay asked. As far as he could remember, they hadn’t made any plans to hangout that day.

“Yeah, peachy. I was just headed out to the diner down the street, figured I’d see if you wanted to join?” Sonny asked.

Clay looked around his apartment. It was slightly messy, he had planned to clean it once he woke up, but it could wait. “Uh… Yeah sure, let me just get dressed real quick.”

Sonny walked in and sat on the couch. He sat there for a couple minutes, looking around the messy apartment. “When you gonna clean this place? It’s a freaking mess!” He joked, kinda.

“I planned on doing it this morning till your sorry ass showed up. I’ll do it when I get home. Ready?” Clay said as he walked out of his room.

Sonny was about to reply when Clay’s phone started ringing. He pulled it out of his pocket and hit the decline button when he didn’t recognize the number. 

“Not gonna answer it?” Sonny asked.

“Don’t know the number. Whoever it is will leave a message if it’s important.” Clay slid the phone back into his pocket. “Let’s go, I’m starving.”

As they were sitting at the diner, shooting the shit, Clay’s phone rang again. It was the same number. He was about to ignore it until Sonny stopped him.  
“Just answer it. If it’s nobody important than just hang up and block the number.” Sonny insisted. His own curiosity was getting the better of him.

Clay complied. “Hello?” He answered.

“Hey son.” He heard on the other end of the phone, causing him to lose all concepts of words. 

He remained silent as he tried to figure out, once again how to speak. “Uh hey Ash.”

Sonny instantly looked at him as soon as the word ‘Ash’ came out of his mouth. This was bad. This was real bad. Sonny immediately regretted telling Clay to answer the phone.   
Clay was finally starting to snap out of his funk from Stella, he didn’t need Ash coming around destroying all the hard work he put in to accomplish that.

“Um Yeah. I guess so.” Sonny heard Clay saying. He had a bad feeling in stomach. He didn’t know what they were talking about, but he fully planned on finding out. 

“Alright. Sounds good. See ya.” Clay said as he hung up the phone and looked over to find Sonny staring with his ‘what the hell was that about' look.

“That was your dad?” Sonny asked.

“Yep. Apparently he’s in town. Wants to meet for a beer later.” Clay knew Sonny wasn’t gonna be happy about that. Clay didn’t even know if HE was happy about that. 

“And you agreed?” Sonny didn’t like this at all.

Clay nodded. “It’s only one beer, how bad can that be?”

Sonny could think of 100 different ways it could go wrong. He had never met Ash, never planned on it either, but he has heard quite a bit about him. “I’m going with you.” He stated.

“What? No. You’re not coming.” Clay stated. The last thing he needed was Sonny and Ash going at it. 

“I’m going. I’ll get there early and sit at the opposite end of the bar, but I will be there.” Sonny was adamant about it. He had a bad feeling this, but hoped to God he was wrong. 

“Fine, but absolutely under no circumstances, are you to approach us, understand?” Clay really didn’t want Sonny there, but he knew there was no way to talk Sonny out of it. 

Sonny agreed and as he did so, both of their phones rang informing them of a mission. “Maybe you ain’t getting that beer after all?” Sonny joked.

Clay just laughed as they got in his car and drove to the base. In all honesty, he wouldn’t be heartbroken if he had to cancel on his dad.

/// 

Sonny and Clay were the last two to arrive and promptly took their seats in the briefing room.

Mandy had informed them that half of them would be going on a top secret mission in North Korea.

The fact that only half of them were going didn’t sit right with Jason. “Why only half?”

Davis pulled up a picture of a submarine and informed them of the reason. “This is why. Say hello to your new home for the next two weeks. You’re going to be entering on a submarine. As you know, they’re not really known for their space. As a result, there is only room for 4 of you.” 

“Weeks? Why weeks?” Clay asked.

Davis informed them that because of the pickup location, it would take them almost two days to fly out to a ship where the sub would pick them up. From there it would take another couple of days to reach their desired location within North Korean waters, approximately 2-3 days to complete the mission and gather intel and then another few days to reach their exfil location.

“Well I’ll gladly sit this one out. Have fun guys.” Sonny laughed. Being in a giant tube underwater wasn’t exactly his idea of a good time. 

“Actually, you’re going. Along with Jason, Ray and Clay.” Blackburn stated.

Sonny threw his head back and rolled his eyes. Of course he has to go. “Wonderful.” He replied sarcastically, resulting in jabs and jokes from everyone about all his phobias. 

“When do we leave?” Jason asked.

“26 hours.” Blackburn replied. 

26 hours. Sonny looked right at Clay, knowing exactly where his head was. 26 hours meant Clay was still having that beer with his father.

Clay was a bit disappointed that they weren’t leaving until tomorrow. He was actually kind of relieved when the mission came about, but since he had 26 hours before he had to leave, that meant he still had time to see his dad.

As soon as they were dismissed from the briefing room, Sonny and Clay headed towards his car. 

“You know you don’t have to go tonight. I’m sure he’ll understand if you tell him we’re heading out tomorrow.” Sonny tried his best to talk Clay out of his plans.  
“You don’t him, man. If I cancel, he’ll just show up at my door. You know, kinda like you did this morning.” Clay joked. “I’d rather just get it over with and be done with him for a few months.”

“You love when I just show up.” Sonny smirked as he tried defending himself. “What times your date with Ash? I’ll make sure I get there a good half hour early.

“6:30. But I’m serious Sonny. Stay away. I don’t need any more drama from him.” Clay said.

Sonny threw his hand up in surrender. “You’ll barely even know I’m there.” He said as he got into the passenger side of Clay’s car.

/// 

Clay walked into the bar and scanned the taken seats, first spotting Sonny on one side of the bar, then laying eyes on his father.

He slowly walked over to where Ash was sitting and ordered a beer.

“Hey son. You look good. How have you been?” Ash said with a smile on his face.

“Still breathing, so I’d say pretty well.” Clay replied.

“Good. I’m glad to hear. So listen, I’m just gonna cut to the chase. My new books about finished. We think it’s gonna be bigger than the first one. I was kinda hoping you would maybe read the manuscript. You’ve always been good with words.”

Clay was a bit reluctant but to keep the peace he reluctantly agreed. He really didn’t want anything to do with his father’s book, but if it would keep them from fighting before a spin up, he would agree to it.

Ash’s phone rang and he informed Clay he would be right back, he just had to take the call from his publisher.

Clay nodded and looked at the TV. He had pretty much forgotten Sonny was even there. As he looked at the screen, he noticed an interview his father had done. “Hey, can you turn this up?” Clay yelled over to the bartender, who then handed the remote to Clay.

Sonny was now laser focused in on Clay. Watching him as they both listened to Ash’s interview.

Clay turned up the volume just in time to hear part of his father interview. “My next book focuses a great deal on the missions the teams go on. Missions no one even knows are SEAL missions. For example, just a couple months ago Shia extremists threaten to poison the water supply in Saudi Arabia and it was the SEAL’s who solved that problem.”

“How do you know?” The reporter asked.

“I have a firsthand account from a SEAL that was there…” There it was. The real reason his father wanted to ‘spend time with him.’ Clay had heard enough. He turned the TV off, sat back in his seat and glared over at his father. 

Clay put his beer down and headed straight for the parking lot. At this point he had completely forgotten Sonny was there. All he knew was that he never wanted anything to do with his father ever again. 

As he walked to his car, he felt his frustrations and disappointments boiling over. He should have known his father had an ulterior motive. 

He was winding up to punch a tree that was standing in front of his car when he felt a hand grasp his wrist. He turned around to see Sonny standing behind him.

“Now that would leave a mark. Probably not such a good idea before a spin up.” Sonny remarked.

Clay freed his arm from Sonny’s grasp and shook his head. “I should have known. The second he said he wanted to just ‘spend time’ with me, I should have known!’ 

“Hey. Look at me Clay. You don’t need him. We all know you didn’t tell him about Saudi Arabia. Don’t let him get under your skin. We all know he’s a shitty dad.” Sonny felt bad. Part of him felt responsible. If he would have just minded his own business and didn’t have Clay answer the phone, this could have possibly all been avoided. “Come on. There’s another bar right down the street. Let’s go talk about it over a drink.”

Sonny threw his arm around over Clay’s shoulder as they headed towards the other bar. Only a few steps from Clay’s car and both their hearts dropped.

“Clay! Hey! Wait up!” Ash yelled as he jogged towards the two men.

Clay and Sonny turned around to see Ash running towards them. 

“Where you going? You just got here.” Ash asked. He had no idea his interview played at the bar while he was on the phone. 

“Really? You just invited me here to use me Ash! I saw the interview, you know, about your’ firsthand account.” Clay yelled out.

Before Ash could even reply, Sonny’s fist met Ash’s face, taking both Clay and Ash by surprise. 

Clay looked over at Sonny, who was shaking his hand out, with a surprised smile on his face. It wasn’t the reaction Sonny expected from him, but was glad to see it. Ash on the other hand, wasn’t too happy about it.

“You’re just gonna let him hit me?” Ash asked, determined to have his son take his side.

“I mean, you kinda deserved it. I’m just sorry I didn’t get to do it first.” Clay shrugged his shoulder. “I’m done with this Ash. I’m done with you. Find someone else to read your damn manuscript.” 

Sonny smiled back at Clay as he finally cut the cord from his father. Ash walked away annoyed and sore. Sonny and Clay continued their walk to the bar, joking the whole way there, as well as the entire time they were there. 

Sonny was glad the punch seemed to help lift Clay’s spirits. The last thing he needed was the kid going on a super dangerous, top secret mission, with a distracted mind. 

They only had two beers each at the bar. Neither one of them wanted to show up the next morning hungover. 

As they were approaching their cars in the parking lot, Clay stopped to thank Sonny. “Hey man. Thanks for tonight. Believe it or not, I’m actually relieved to be done with Ash. I should have done it a long time ago.”

“Don’t go get all soft on me now goldilocks. It was partly my fault you ended up in that situation anyway. I was just righting my wrong.” Sonny said.

“Well regardless. Thanks. For everything. Now go get some sleep. We got a big ole’ tube waiting for us to grace it with our presence tomorrow deep in the ocean.” Clay winked. He couldn’t resist the jab.

“Ugh, you just had to go there didn’t you? Don’t remind me, please.” Sonny rolled his eyes with a slight smirk. “I’ll see you tomorrow.” 

They both entered their vehicles and headed home. Tomorrow was gonna come quicker than any of them wanted and they both knew it was going to be a long few weeks.


	2. Chapter 2

The next morning rolled around quicker than any of them would have liked. They have all been in some of the most dangerous parts of the world, but for some reason, there was something about entering North Korea that had them all on edge.

As hour 26 approached, they all made their way to base, basically arriving at the same time. 

They all noticed the cut up and slightly bruised knuckles on Sonny’s right hand, peaking all of their curiosity, well, all except Clay.

 

“That upset about going on a sub?” Jason joked, figuring Sonny punched a wall or something about having to face most of his growing list of phobias. 

Sonny looked up and laughed, flexing his hand open and closed. “Actually, it had nothing to do with the mission.” He smirked. He knew Jason was either gonna be pissed or slightly jealous that he had a crack at Ash before him.

“Oh, well then please enlighten us… Is it gonna effect the mission?” Jason knew by the smirk on Sonny’s face that something had definitely happened.

“Young buck over there went out for a few drinks last nights...” he said nodding towards Clay’s direction. Jason turned to face his youngest member, eyeing him up and down, looking for any signs of a fight on him. Not seeing anything, he looked back over at Sonny, silently telling him to continue. “… with his dear ole Dad.” 

Jason closed his eyes in disbelief. He knew exactly where Sonny was going with this now. “And you walked in on them and couldn’t hold back could you?” 

“Actually, I was already there, at the other end of the bar. Things went south. Spencer walked out on Ash, I followed. We were gonna head to another bar to talk about it when the asshole came running out behind us wondering where Clay was going.” Sonny didn’t want to tell Jason everything. Felt like it wasn’t his place. When Spenser was ready, he would tell him himself. “He had it coming Jas.” Sonny finally admitted.

“Spenser?” Jason looked over at Clay, looking for some sort of clarification.

Clay just shrugged his shoulder. “I’m just sorry I didn’t punch him first.” Clay smirked.

“This conversation, it isn’t over. We’ll talk about it more on the plane. Right now, we need to get inside before we get our asses chewed out for being late.”

Sonny and Clay both nodded as they all made their way in to the briefing room.

/// 

As they boarded the plane and settled in, Sonny made sure to get a spot next to Clay. Yeah, the kid had said he was fine, but Sonny still wanted to keep a close eye on him. The poor kid had been through so much in the last few months between Stella, Adam and now cutting off his father. Sonny wasn’t sure how much more Clay could take before he completely cracked.

It didn’t go unnoticed by either Jason or Ray, how close of an eye Sonny was keeping on Clay. 

“He sure is keeping a close eye on Spenser, ain’t he?” Ray said to Jason as they hung their hammocks up on the opposite side of Sonny and Clay. 

“Something went down last night. I know we all hate Ash, but Sonny’s smarter than that. He would never just hit someone for nothing. No matter how bad he wanted to.” Jason remarked back. “Once we get in the air and everyone’s a bit more relaxed, I’ll go over and talk to them, find out what really happened.”

Ray nodded, satisfied with Jason’s answer. 

On the other side of the plane, Clay and Sonny were having a conversation of their own.

“How’s the hand?” Clay asked him.

“Feels great!” Sonny smirked. 

Clay just gave him the look and Sonny finally admitted that it was a little sore. Nothing serious though. He had broken enough bones in his lifetime to know whether or not something was broken. 

“I still can’t believe you hit him.” Clay was all smiles, which both made Sonny feel better and a little more concerned. The kid was real good at hiding his emotions at times and Sonny couldn’t tell if the smile was genuine, or if it was just one big cover up.

“He had it coming.” Sonny said. “How you holding up?” 

Clay shrugged his shoulders and after a short pause said “Actually kinda relieved. It feels good to finally be out from under his thumb. He was never there for me, never would be. I don’t know why I kept trying.”

The short pause that came before Clay spoke told Sonny all he needed to know. Clay was hurt. “Well you know, if you ever need to talk about it, big brother Sonny is always here.”

Clay laughed at Sonny’s comment and thought back to their conversation from the night before. “Who’s the one getting all soft now?”

About a few hours after takeoff, Jason decided it was time to get some answers. He stood up, and Ray watched him slowly make his way over to Sonny and Clay’s side of the plane. He sat down on a box between their feet and after a couple of minutes of small talk to see if either one of them would open up, decided he was just going to have to dive right in. “So last night… what happened?” 

Sonny looked over at Clay and waited for him to answer. Clay looked over at Sonny, hoping he would be the one to tell Jason, but once he realized Sonny wasn’t talking, he finally spilled the beans.

“My dad invited me out last night for a few bears.” He started.

“And you went, even knowing you were leaving for a mission in the morning?” Jason wasn’t a big fan that that happened. 

“It was planned before we even got the mission. I was actually relieved when we got the call yesterday, thinking I would have a good excuse to cancel, then we were told we weren’t leaving for 26 hours. I still thought about canceling but then I figured ‘why not just go and get it over with?’ I was only going to stay for one beer, two beers max.”

“How’d he end up there?” Jason pointed to Sonny.

“He was with me when Ash called. When I told him my plans he insisted on being there, but I told him he had to stay at the opposite end of the bar and under no circumstances was he to approach Ash.”

“That worked out real well huh?” Jason interrupted again.

“With all due respect boss, would you let the kid finish?” Sonny finally stepped in. Jason apologized and told Clay to continue. 

“Anyway, things were going ok. He told me he was writing a second book and wanted me to read the manuscript. I honestly want nothing to do with it, but I told him I would to keep us from fighting. About 5 minutes later he got a phone call from his publisher that he had to take. He stood up and walked to the back of the bar where it was quieter. After watching him for a minute, I realized it was going to be one of those longer phone calls so I started looking around, noticed an interview that Ash had recently done was airing on one of the TV’s.” It was at this point that Clay became silent.

“What was the interview about?” Jason asked.

Clay looked away from Jason and Sonny, trying to keep himself composed. He had worked hard to convince Sonny he was fine, or at least he thought he had him convinced, and falling apart now would ruin all that hard work. 

Sonny noticed and decided to step in. “He was talking about the damn new book. How this one was all about the missions. Started talking about that damn mission we went on in Saudi Arabia, how he had a firsthand account from someone that was there.”

“Did you tell him about it?” Jason asked.

Clay shook his head. “Nope. He had asked me about it earlier, said he knew it was us that were sent it, but I never confirmed nor denied it. He’s still got connections. I’m sure he asked someone higher up if it was Bravo and when they said yes, figured he would just use me to try to get information.”

“He’s a piece of shit Jason.” Sonny added.

Jason nodded. They all knew Ash was a piece of shit. “That still doesn’t tell me how your fist landed on Ash’s face.” Jason said looking over at Sonny.

“We’re getting there.” Sonny said.

“After hearing the interview, the last thing I wanted to see was the man that supposedly just wanted to spend time with me. He was just using me for his own personal gain. I left. Walked right out the front door without saying a word to him. Sonny caught up to me right before I reached my car. I forgot he was even there. I’m glad he was. He probably saved me from doing something stupid. I was so pissed off. I wanted to hit everything in sight. After a couple minutes, Sonny finally calmed me down. We were just about to walk to another bar down the street when Ash came running out wanting to know where I was going.”

“And that’s when it happened?” Jason asked.

“That’s when it happened.” Both Sonny and Clay said in unison. 

Jason nodded then looked over at Sonny. “Anything broken?”

“Nope, just a little sore. I assure you, it definitely won’t affect how I do my job.” Sonny swore. 

“And you? How you holding up?” Jason said after looking at Clay.

“Never better.” Clay smiled.

Neither Sonny nor Jason believed him, but decided to drop the subject for now. Jason just looked over at Sonny and without words, told him to continue keeping an eye on Clay. Sonny just nodded, reading Jason’s face perfectly. 

“Alright then. We only have a few hours left until we land on the both. I suggest you both get some rest, we’re all gonna need it.” Jason stated as he stood up and made his way back over to his hammock and updating Ray on the conversation. 

A few hours later, they landed on the giant ship in the middle of the ocean. They only had about two hours before the submarine they were going to board arrived. None of them bothered becoming familiar with the ship or those who were on it. Instead, they mostly stayed to themselves, informed Blackburn they had landed, and ate their lunch. The only time they spoke to those on board was when someone would approach them regarding something related to the mission.

Two hours later, they were informed the submarine had arrived and that it was time for them to board it. 

Jason, Ray and Clay couldn’t help but mess with Sonny. 

“Hey Sonny, your chariot awaits”

“Oh don’t worry, the sharks won’t be able to get you. They’re probably just afraid of the big ole tube as you are.”

“What’s the worst thing that could happen? It’s not like we’re going to be stuck in a giant tube deep in the ocean.”

“You guys done? Cause if not, I ain’t getting in that thing.” Sonny joked. He knew it was all in good fun, but it definitely wasn’t helping. 

“Yeah, yeah. We’re done… for now at least.” Jason laughed.

Sonny smiled back but rolled his eyes. Oh he was never gonna hear the end of it. 

Once the four men were all inside the sub, the top hatch that they entered in, closed and sealed shut. A few of the men inside introduced themselves and gave them a tour of their temporary home. 

It was smaller than they had expected it to be. They could immediately see why only four of them were sent. They all felt a bit claustrophobic, which none of them were, except for Sonny. Made them wonder how Sonny really felt.

Feeling it themselves, they decided to lay off the jokes for now. Their ‘tour guides’ showed them the room they would be staying in and told them to settle in and make themselves at home. Once they were all settled, they would meet up in the sub’s version of a briefing room and receive further details regarding the mission. For now though, they just wanted to get settled in and adjust to their new, tight surroundings.


	3. Chapter 3

It took two long days for them to slowly and quietly enter into North Korean waters. As soon as they did, everyone felt the atmosphere change. Things had become more tense and serious.

The claustrophobia had disappeared after a few hours. Even Sonny started to ease up a bit. That didn’t stop the rest of the team from cracking jokes to try to lighten everyone’s moods though. Sonny didn’t mind too much though. He knew there would come a time when he would be the one cracking jokes about something they didn’t like. It’s just what they do to each other. 

On the third day, they finally became close enough to sure for them to make the swim to shore. 

“Whatcha more scared of Sonny? Sharks or getting caught by one of them North Korean soldiers?” Clay joked as they were putting on their wetsuits.

Sonny looked at him but didn’t say a word. He was not looking forward to this at all. 

“Don’t worry Clay, he’s got his fancy shark bracelet on. Ain’t no shark messing with him today.” Ray joked back causing them all to laugh and Sonny to fake laugh right back.

“You laugh now, but I’ll be the one laughing when one of them sharks swims right by me to get to one of ya’ll.” Sonny quipped back at them, still fake laughing.

“Aw Sonny, you mean to tell me if one of us got eaten by a shark you would laugh?” Jason said, calling out Sonny’s bluff.

“Hell yeah I would…” Sonny paused for a second “…Ok, maybe I wouldn’t, but you get what I’m saying.”

“Yeah, we got your point Sonny.” Clay said after patting Sonny on the back.

Blackburn entered the room right before they were about to exit the sub and begin their swim to shore and gave them one final briefing. At the end of his mini ‘lecture he reminded them “remember, we’re technically not here. DO. NOT. GET. CAUGHT. If you do, you’re on your own. No one’s going to be able to come save you. Understood?” 

They all nodded their heads. “Way to dampen the mood.” Ray smiled back, trying to release some of the tension in the air as a result of Blackburn’s little speech. 

The swim to shore felt a little further than they were expecting it to be. They breached the water in a small rock like formation. It was far from a cave, but would provide just enough cover for them to exit the water without being seen. 

The water was mostly calm that day, with only a few occasional waves.. Sonny was the first one to pull himself out of the water. He didn’t want to be in there any longer than he had to be. Jason was the next one out, accepting a helping hand from Sonny to pull him up on the rock. Jason had grabbed Rays hand and started pulling him up and Sonny was just about to grab Clay’s hand when a small, rogue wave hit, slamming Clay into one of the rocks. The impact was just hard enough to cause a grunt to escape from his mouth.

Sonny ran over to check on him while Ray and Jason kept their guns aimed above their heads, not knowing if one of the North Korean soldiers heard Clay’s grunt.

Clay quickly stood himself up while Sonny checked him over. His left side was a little sore, but nothing bad. He figured the worst he would get would be a bruise or two. It wasn’t until Sonny grabbed his arm that he realized he scraped up the whole side of his left forearm.

Clay went to say something but Jason immediately held his hand up to stop him and pointed up. A North Korean soldier was standing directly above them. Keeping their guns aimed on him, Jason kept his hand up. They had only seen one man, but he knew others had to be somewhat close.

Luckily for them, the man only stayed there for about a minute and a half, finishing his cigarette. Once he was finished, he threw into the ocean and started walking along the edge of the cliff he was standing on. 

Once the coast was clear, Jason made his way next to Spenser. “How bad is it?” He whispered.

“Just a scrape, I’ll live.” Clay whispered back. 

“Quite a scrape there pretty boy. It’s bleeding pretty good.” Sonny added.

“I’m fine. Let’s just get what we came here to get, and get back on that sub.” His arm was burning from the giant scrape. The salt water dripping into it definitely wasn’t helping any, but it wasn’t anything he couldn’t handle. His side and chest was also growing a bit sorer from being thrown into the rocks. 

The fact that they would be able to complete their mission from this location felt like a godsend. Clay didn’t want to move more than he had to. He’d much rather save his energy for the swim back to the sub. 

It took about 25 minutes for them to gather the information they needed. Once completed, it was time to make the swim back.

Before entering the water, Jason radioed in to Blackburn to inform him of Clay’s minor injuries so that someone from medical would be ready to clean his arm up.

“Hey Spenser, make sure you stay nice and close to Sonny. You’re gonna need that bracelet with all that blood.” Jason smiled, only half joking. None of them truly believed Sonny’s bracelet worked, but right now, they wanted to believe it did.

“Look here pretty boy. I will give you the bracelet as long as you keep your distance from me.” Sonny said, also half joking, as he pretended to take the bracelet off. 

“We’ll be fine. Just swim fast.” Ray said as he slipped into the water.

Sonny was the next one to make his way into the ocean, followed by Clay. Jason noticed the wince he made as the salt water made contact with his injured arm. Before Clay submerged himself under water, Jason informed him he would be the first one on the sub and that medical would be there waiting for him.

Clay rolled his eyes and descended into the water, joining Sonny and Ray and waiting for Jason. 

It was not a fun swim for Clay. He started slowing down a little more than halfway through their swim. His arm burned and his side and chest was aching more and more with every stroke he took. He felt as if he was laying on the bottom of the ocean with the weight of everything above him pushing down.

The rest of the team dropped back to assist him. The water was dark so it was hard to see exactly how much he was struggling, but they were going to do whatever it took to get him back to that sub, even if it meant pulling him the rest of the way.

Spenser felt completely drained by the time they reached the sub. He had long forgotten about the pain in his arm and was now just focusing on each breath. 

All three of them pushed him into the narrow torpedo tube and shit the door.

Once the tube depressurized and was open from the inside, Clay was pulled out by Blackburn and Petty Officer Takahashi and immediately everyone in the room was shocked by his condition. Jason informed them the kid was fine, just had a badly scraped up arm. What they were looking at was not fine. Clay was having difficulty breathing and looked like he just finished running a full blown triathlon. Given he did just swim quite a distance, this is not what they were expecting to pull out of the tube.

“Clay talk to me. What’s going on?” Blackburn asked, as the others started getting his gear off.

“I cant… breathe.. chest.” Clay huffed, tapping on his chest.

“You’re chest hurts?” Blackburn asked.

Clay didn’t answer, just nodded his head.

“Alright. We need to get him to the wardroom.” One of guys said. 

Because they were on a submarine, there weren’t any official medics on board. A majority of the men who were deployed on the sub, however, did have medical backgrounds.

Jason made his way out of the tube, just as they were taking Clay out of the room.

“What the hell happened!? I thought he just had a scraped arm?” Blackburn was immediately all over Jason for answers.

“That’s what we all thought. He was perfectly fine until halfway through the swim, then he just gassed out! Where is he? How’s he doing?” Jason went from defending himself to immediately concerned.

“I don’t know. They took him to the wardroom. We pulled him out of the tube and he could barely catch his breath. Said his chest hurt.” Blackburn updated Jason.

“Dammit.” Jason cursed, feeling like he missed something he should have caught. “Alright, I’m gonna go check on him. Can you help Ray and Sonny out?” Jason asked Blackburn.

“Sure thing.” Blackburn replied and with that, Jason disappeared from the room in search of Clay.

It took him a couple minutes to get to Clay. They had an oxygen mask on him and were cleaning up his arm. His breathing was still a little labored, but he was no longer struggling to breathe like Blackburn had described.

Clay looked over and smiled as soon as he noticed Jason was in the room. He went to raise his right hand to remove the mask but Jason stopped him. “Leave it on. It’s helping.” He said to Clay, then looked at one of the men helping him. “How is he?”

“We can’t say for sure, but our best guess… possibly bruised lung. He has a slight bruise forming on his left side and chest, as you can see, but we felt around and it doesn’t feel like anything’s broken. The swim, occupied by the pressure of the water didn’t help. As soon as we got him in here and on oxygen, his breathing calmed down. We did give him some pain medication that’ll make him a little out of it, but shouldn’t knock him out. He’s still experiencing discomfort, and probably will until he gets off this sub and into a real hospital.” The man informed Jason.

“A hospital? It’s that serious?” Jason’s concern doubled.

“If it is a bruised lung, yeah, it could be that serious. We’re a sub. We don’t typically carry medical equipment. We have no way to tell if that is really the problem or not, or if it’s something worse that we can’t see yet. Bruised lungs can be pretty serious if they’re bruised enough. He is responding well to the oxygen we put him on though so that’s a good sign. We will keep him in here, on oxygen if need be, until we can get him on the ship, where they have more medical equipment.”

Ray walked in and heard the last sentence the man told Jason. “He needed oxygen? What the hell happened?” 

We’re thinking a bruised lung. Won’t know for sure until we get him off the sub. How’d you get out before Sonny anyway?” Jason asked.

“Luck of the draw brother. Guess who pulled the short stick?” Ray chuckled. “They should have him out any min-“ Rays sentence was cut short by a sudden rocking and flickering lights.

“The hell was that?” Jason asked looking at the men who were more familiar with the sub.

The men all looked around at each other until one finally spoke up. “I don’t know. Never experienced it before.”

“Alright. Ray, stay here with Clay. I’m gonna go check on Sonny and find out what’s going on.

As Jason entered the room with the torpedo tubes, he noticed two men pulling on the latch to the tube where Sonny would have been. “What the hell is going on Blackburn? Where’s Sonny?”

Blackburn looked over at Jason with a horrified look. “Power surge somehow shorted. The latch won’t open. He’s still in there Jason.”

**Author's Note:**

> Hey guys. I hope you enjoyed the first chapter. One of my readers messaged me a few days ago with this idea and it was too good to pass up. I really wanted to show the relationship between Clay and Sonny before I started the next few chapters. Anyway, I’m really excited about the ideas for this story so hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoy writing it.


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